Puppies are adorable and small…so when they are exuberantly jumping all over you and your friends, you probably aren’t thinking about what happens to that behavior when they get bigger and the jumping on you and your friends becomes jumping on or at *all* people and how that can head toward dangerous territory. Your puppy isn’t going to read your mind if you suddenly get upset and expect new behavior for greeting people. You need to create the behavior you want from your full sized dog now, not later. Food motivated dog? Great, that’s what you can use to reinforce the new behavior. If your dog loves people, you have another reinforcer already built into this situation: actually getting to be with the people (but in a way that is safe for everyone).

Where do you start? The many ways a dog can politely greet people can look different, but the common denominator is that all of your dog’s feet will be on the ground. One of the easiest ways to make sure your dog’s feet stay on the ground is to place the reward, food, on the ground or floor. It’s hard to bend down and eat while jumping on people! This is just the beginning, but you have to start somewhere, right? If you need help with an overeager greeter, contact me and we’ll get the specifics lined up and create the behavior you want now, not later.